Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell to testify on money in politics

It’s not often that Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are in the same room these days — but the Senate leaders will make an exception to discuss how a proposed constitutional amendment would affect money in politics.

Aside from occasional bouts on the Senate floor over procedure, the two leaders rarely meet face to face during a heated midterm election year in which Republican McConnell is facing a stiff race in Kentucky for his Senate seat. But Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said on Saturday that for the first time in his Senate Judiciary Committee’s history, the majority and minority leaders will testify before the panel.

“The [Supreme] Court has repeatedly used the First Amendment — not to protect the voices of all Americans, but as an instrument to amplify the voices of billionaires and corporations,” Leahy said of the Tuesday showdown. “Those voices are not the only ones who the Founding Fathers intended the First Amendment to protect.”

Conservatives have argued that Democrats’ intended constitutional change amounts to a “repeal” of the First Amendment, and McConnell called the proposal “the ultimate act of radicalism.”

“This crass attempt by Democrats to shut down any opposition to their plans should be rejected swiftly and decisively by everyone in this country who prizes the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment,” McConnell said after Reid announced his backing for the amendment last month.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have brought the amendment into Senate Democrats’ election-year agenda for a floor vote this summer in hopes that it augments their messaging campaign to portray Republicans as favoring the wealthy. The amendment is sure to fail — it must receive the support of two-thirds of both houses of Congress to succeed — but Democrats think it will pay dividends by expressing their party’s opinion that money does not equal speech.

“The Supreme Court has equated money with speech, so the more money you have the more speech you get, and the more influence in our democracy. That is wrong. Every American should have the same ability to influence our political system. One American, one vote. That’s what the Constitution guarantees,” Reid said of the amendment, written by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).